10-Propargyl-10-deazaminopterin (encompassing “10-propargyl-10-dAM,” “pralatrexate,” “racemic PDX,” “(2S)-2-[[4-[(1RS)-1-[(2,4-diaminopteridin-6-yl)methyl]but-3-ynyl]benzoyl]amino]pentanedioic acid,” “(2RS)-2-[[4-[(1RS)-1-[(2,4-diaminopteridin-6-yl)methyl]but-3-ynyl]benzoyl]amino]pentanedioic acid,” and “PDX”), is a compound which has been tested and found useful in the treatment of cancer. In its racemic form, (2S)-2-[[4-[(1RS)-1-[(2,4-diaminopteridin-6-yl)methyl]but-3-ynyl]benzoyl]amino]pentanedioic acid has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for relapsed and refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma. (2S)-2-[[4-[(1RS)-1-[(2,4-diaminopteridin-6-yl)methyl]but-3-ynyl]benzoyl]amino]pentanedioic acid is also being investigated for use in lymphoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer.
This compound, which has the structure shown in FIG. 1, was originally disclosed by DeGraw et al., “Synthesis and Antitumor Activity of 10-Propargyl-10-deazaminopterin,” J. Med. Chem. 36: 2228-2231 (1993) and shown to act as an inhibitor of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (“DHFR”) and as an inhibitor of growth in the murine L1210 cell line. In addition, some results were presented for the antitumor properties of the compound using the E0771 murine mammary tumor model.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,071 and PCT Publication No. WO 1998/02163, disclose that highly purified PDX compositions when tested in a xenograft model have efficacy against human tumors. Subsequent studies with PDX have shown that it is useful on its own and in combinations with other therapeutic agents. For example, Sirotnak et al., Clinical Cancer Research Vol. 6, 3705-3712 (2000) reports that co-administration of PDX and probenecid, an inhibitor of a cMOAT/MRP-like plasma membrane ATPase, greatly enhances the efficacy of PDX against human solid tumors. PDX and combinations of PDX with platinum based chemotherapeutic agents have been shown to be effective against mesothelioma. (Khokar, et al., Clin. Cancer Res. 7: 3199-3205 (2001). Co-administration with gemcitabine (Gem), for treatment of lymphoma, has been disclosed in WO/2005/117892 (Combinations of PDX with taxols are disclosed to be efficacious in U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,205. PDX has also shown to be effective for treatment of T-cell lymphoma, see U.S. Pat. No. 7,622,470. Other studies have shown a method for assessing sensitivity of a lymphoma to treatment with PDX by determining the amount of reduced folate carrier-1 enzyme (RFC-1) expressed by the sample, wherein a higher level of expressed RFC-1 is indicative of greater sensitivity to 10-propargyl-10-dAM, disclosed in PCT Publication No. WO 2005/117892.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.